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Monday, January 7, 2008

The Little Red Dress

My youngest daughter (7yo) has been begging me to make her a dress for at least the last year. She is a very girly, girl and loves frills, flounces, pink, you name it. (I have no idea where she got those genes from!) Until now, I've gotten away with simple 3-tiered ruffle skirts. They only take about an hour max to whip up and they're harder to grow out of. ;) Well, before Christmas I finally caved. The stash was raided and DD chose a pattern. The first piece of fabric was abandoned because there wasn't enough and the stash was raided again. As it was the holiday season, red with white spots seemed the natural choice. I used McCalls 5089, view C which is the blue dress in the top right-hand corner.

This dress is very easy and quick to sew. There are just a few things to watch. It's short! My DD is 7. I made a size 8 (although she could have got away with a 7 in width) and lengthened it to a size 10 length. This brings it just below her knees. I also had to shorten the shoulder straps. I ended up cutting off 5 cm and sewing in about another 5cm. Much to DD's disgust both her parents still think she needs a t-shirt underneath in public. Isn't it funny - I wore similar dresses when I was young and thought nothing of it. Yet now, as a mother, I want my daughter covered up, and not just to avoid sunburn.